Reading Galatians 4:21-30; Galatians 5:1-12
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6, NIV).
Galatians 4:21-31, GNB
[21]Let me ask those of you who want to be subject to the Law: do you not hear what the Law says?
[22]It says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, the other by a free woman.
[23]His son by the slave woman was born in the usual way, but his son by the free woman was born as a result of God’s promise.
[24]These things can be understood as a figure: the two women represent two covenants. The one whose children are born in slavery is Hagar, and she represents the covenant made at Mount Sinai.
[25]Hagar, who stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, is a figure of the present city of Jerusalem, in slavery with all its people.
[26]But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother.
[27]For the scripture says: “Be happy, you childless woman! Shout and cry with joy, you who never felt the pains of childbirth! For the woman who was deserted will have more children than the woman whose husband never left her.”
[28]Now, you, my brothers and sisters, are God’s children as a result of his promise, just as Isaac was.
[29]At that time the son who was born in the usual way persecuted the one who was born because of God’s Spirit; and it is the same now.
[30]But what does the scripture say? It says, “Send the slave woman and her son away; for the son of the slave woman will not have a part of the father’s property along with the son of the free woman.”
[31]So then, my brothers and sisters, we are not the children of a slave woman but of a free woman.
Galatians 5:1-12
[1]Freedom is what we have — Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.
[2]Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, it means that Christ is of no use to you at all.
[3]Once more I warn any man who allows himself to be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the whole Law.
[4]Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You are outside God’s grace.
[5]As for us, our hope is that God will put us right with him; and this is what we wait for by the power of God’s Spirit working through our faith.
[6]For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is faith that works through love.
[7]You were doing so well! Who made you stop obeying the truth? How did he persuade you?
[8]It was not done by God, who calls you.
[9]“It takes only a little yeast to make the whole batch of dough rise,” as they say.
[10]But I still feel confident about you. Our life in union with the Lord makes me confident that you will not take a different view and that the man who is upsetting you, whoever he is, will be punished by God.
[11]But as for me, my brothers and sisters, if I continue to preach that circumcision is necessary, why am I still being persecuted? If that were true, then my preaching about the cross of Christ would cause no trouble.
[12]I wish that the people who are upsetting you would go all the way; let them go on and castrate themselves!